“I was very supported, it encouraged me to dare to defy this last ban,” testifies the actress

Actress Isild Le Besco announced on Wednesday that she had filed a complaint against director Benoît Jacquot for rape of a minor over the age of 15, between 1998 and 2007.

“I was very supported, it encouraged me to dare to file a complaint and defy this last prohibition, this last remnant of alienation,” says actress Isild Le Besco, on Mouv’, Thursday May 30. She announced Wednesday in the newspaper Releasethat after hesitating for a long time, she finally filed a complaint against the director Benoît Jacquot for acts of rape of a minor over 15 years old, committed between 1998 and 2007.

“But it’s very hard, because France’s number one aggressor, in many countries, is the justice system”affirms the actress, who notably filed a complaint in 2018 in another case which had been dismissed. “Today, what hurts women and children the most is justice”she continues, “because being cheated, mistreated and beaten, crushed, belittled by a man is one thing, but against his strong arm, French justice, it’s shock after shock, and in general, we don’t worry about it. Don’t do it again.”

She adds that she “hope nothing” of this complaint, “because I have hoped in the past that justice is one, but justice is made in the dominion of man.” By filing a complaint, "I offer my case," she says. “What matters is that justice dissociates itself from domination, from patriarchy and ceases to be this absolute accomplice of these predators, of these aggressors.”

Isild Le Besco, however, believes in the need to free speech: “It’s very important to talk about all this, and especially for women who have been able to go through and come out of all these toxic relationships to talk, talk, talk and listen, listen, listen, because it gives keys to understanding” , For “identify these mechanisms more quickly” influence and help women get out of it more quickly.

She believes that “MeToo is still scary, it’s a word we don’t want to hear, it’s a word that speaks about the victims, but those who speak are those who are already strong, who have already succeeded in getting the head out of the water”. “It takes incredible strength to be able to say, ‘I was hit, I was hurt and I don’t want it to happen again’, it takes crazy power for that”, she relates. On her relationship with Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon, against whom she also filed a complaint in February, she analyzes: “These men were naturally stealing substances from young girls and they were using a whole system, but in fact all bad people always use a system.”

But words will not be enough to bring about real change, according to her. Isild Le Besco does not say “not confident” about the future or real changes in cinema or society, particularly on questions of incest. “There is only a real law and real changes that count, for the moment all this is only words, only writings, and reality must follow.”